Daily TIP

The Daily TIP: Hamas Official Says 50 of Those Killed During Riots Were Members

Posted by Tip Staff - May 16, 2018

Hamas Official Says 50 of Those Killed During Riots Were MembersFollowing U.S., Guatemala Becomes Second Nation to Open Its Embassy in JerusalemU.S. Designates Iran's Central Bank Chief as Terrorist for Support of Quds Force, HezbollahIsraeli Researchers Announce Patent of Molecule that Could Reprogram Cancer Cells

Hamas Official Says 50 of Those Killed During Riots Were Members

In a clip released by Israel, an official of Hamas, the terrorist group that exercises complete political and military control over the Gaza Strip, acknowledged that 50 of those killed during Monday's violent riots belonged to Hamas.

Salah Bardawil told an interviewer that of the “62 people martyred, 50 were Hamas.”

The Times of Israel reported that the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza had previously said that 60 Gazans had died in the riots, which saw rioters throw firebombs and shoot at Israel troops. IDF Spokesman Jonathan Conricus posted the clip and added, "Take his word for it. This was no peaceful protest."

It would also mean that the members of terror groups who were killed in the rioting would be 53, as Palestinian Islamic Jihad has claimed three.

Eight of the dead terrorists were killed in a gun battle with Israeli troops in the northern Gaza Strip as they attempted to breach the border fence with Israel.

A Gaza doctor told the Associated Press that an eight-month-old girl who died, did not die from inhaling tear gas as Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry had claimed, but from a preexisting medical condition.

The Jerusalem Postreported that Israel's Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said that the number of Palestinian rioters at the border dropped dramatically following Egyptian efforts to restore calm after dozens of Palestinians were killed in violent clashes on Monday.

Following U.S., Guatemala Becomes Second Nation to Open Its Embassy in Jerusalem

Guatemala became the second country to open its embassy in Jerusalem on Wednesday, The Jerusalem Postreported.

At the dedication ceremony, held at Jerusalem’s Malha Technological Park, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the opening of the embassy in Jerusalem goes “hand in hand” with the opening of the United States embassy in Israel’s capital two days before.

In his remarks, Netanyahu highlighted the friendly relationship that both countries have shared since 1948 when Guatemala became the second country, after the U.S., to recognize the State of Israel.

Netanyahu mentioned that in Israel, there is a Guatemala Street "about a kilometer from here in Jerusalem" and in many Israeli cities in honor of former Guatemalan Ambassador to the United Nations Jorge Garcia Granados, who was critical in convincing Latin American countries to favorably vote for General Assembly Resolution 181 which called for the partition of Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and Arab state.

At the ceremony, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales highlighted the friendly relationship that the U.S, Israel and Guatemala share: "70 years ago the US and Guatemala voted in favor of partition," he said. "Three friends that share friendship and loyalty."

Netanyahu said that he plans to visit Latin America by the end of this year, and that he will stop in Guatemala.

U.S. Designates Iran's Central Bank Chief as Terrorist for Support of Quds Force, Hezbollah

The United State Treasury Department has sanctioned the Central Bank of Iran and its head for their support of terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, The New York Timesreported Tuesday.

This is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to disrupt Iran's support for terrorism. Last week the Treasury Department announced that it had broken up a money laundering scheme, with help from the United Arab Emirates, that provided millions of dollars to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-Quds Force, which is in charge of the IRGC's foreign operations.

In addition to sanctioning Iran's Central Bank, the Treasury Department designated its governor, Valiollah Seif, who “covertly funneled millions of dollars” to Hezbollah for the IRGC through al-Bilad Islamic Bank in Iraq, as a global terrorist.

Also sanctioned was Ali Tarzali, another senior official at Iran’s Central Bank, and Aras Habib, chairman of the Al-Bilad Islamic Bank in Iraq.

“Iran’s Central Bank Governor covertly funneled millions of dollars on behalf of the IRGC-QF through Iraq-based al-Bilad Islamic Bank to enrich and support the violent and radical agenda of Hizballah. It is appalling, but not surprising, that Iran’s senior-most banking official would conspire with the IRGC-QF to facilitate funding of terror groups like Hizballah, and it undermines any credibility he could claim in protecting the integrity of the institution as a central bank governor,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin in a statement announcing the new sanctions.

A novel molecule that not only inhibits growth of cancer cells but also has the ability to reprogram the cancer cells back to normal-like cells is patented and ready to be further developed with a commercial partner, according to BGN Technologies (the tech-transfer company of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) and the National Institute for Biotechnology, a research institute at the university.

The potentially groundbreaking approach, which came out of a research group led by BGU Prof. Varda Shoshan-Barmatz, is based on preventing the expression of VDAC1, a protein that is highly overexpressed in many solid and non-solid tumors.

VDAC1 serves as the gatekeeper of the mitochondria, organelles that control cell metabolism, and is therefore crucial for supplying the high energy demands of malignant cells.

Shoshan-Barmatz showed that silencing VDAC1 expression using the siRNA method leads to inhibition of cancer cells (but not healthy cells), both in vitro and in mouse models of glioblastoma, lung cancer and triple negative breast cancer.